look not a gift horse in the mouth
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Do not question or criticize something that is given to you for free
Literally: examining a horse's teeth to determine its age
Examples
She was given a car, so she didn't look a gift horse in the mouth and just drove off
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “look not a gift horse in the mouth” mean?
Do not question or criticize something that is given to you for free Literally: examining a horse's teeth to determine its age
Is “look not a gift horse in the mouth” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.